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Aug 17, 2011

Questions for Britain After the Riots | World | Learning English

BASANI MABYALANE: "I feel there is maybe more that could be done to empower the young people because, from what I saw yesterday, to me it looked like they don’t have much to do. They have got the time. They have got the energy. But they are using that energy on negative things.”

In the north London neighborhood of Haringey, some young people are using their energy to do positive things. They have formed a group called HYPE: Haringey’s Young People Empowered.

One of those young people is Erica Lopez. She thinks a majority of the rioters simply wanted to loot. But she says she understands and shares the anger of many of her young neighbors over a lack of jobs and cuts in youth services.

ERICA LOPEZ: “The government really needs to actually take time and listen to these young people because for a long time they have been crying in silence saying, 'This is what matters to me.' They have really been crying for a long time.”